How bats' jaws evolve: A new study

Darwin's finches and a group of bats have stories that help us understand evolution. 

Darwin's finches, living on the Galapagos Islands, have special beaks for their favorite food. 

These beaks gave Charles Darwin ideas about how species change over time.

Learning more about bats

Now, there's a bat story. Over 200 kinds of bats in the American tropics have unique jaws for different foods. 

A study in Nature Communications explains that their teeth change a lot, like having more or fewer teeth, depending on their diet.

Bats have all kinds of teeth, just like us—incisors, canines, premolars, and molars. 

They evolved diverse diets in a short time, about 25 million years. 

Some bats have short faces for biting tough fruits, while others have long snouts for drinking nectar.

Scientists studied over 100 bat species using CT scans. They found that bats with longer jaws had more teeth, like nectar-eaters. 

Short-faced bats, often fruit-eaters, had less room for teeth. 

Why it's important

This research helps us understand how teeth grow and evolve, especially in animals like bats and humans. 

The scientists hope to discover more about genetic patterns in bat teeth to unlock secrets of evolution.
 

• Related news:
• research
• bats
• jaws
• evolution
• 25 November 2023

---